Mayo Clinic Holds Conference on Genomics in Patient Care; Sessions Webcast for Journalists

Thursday, September 20, 2012

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Individualizing Medicine 2012: Transforming Patient Care with Genomics conference, scheduled for Oct. 1-3, will be webcast live for journalists on the Mayo Clinic News Network. This inaugural conference from Mayo's Center for Individualized Medicine focuses on the promise and challenges of incorporating genomics into patient care. All conference content, including presentations and panel discussions, will be available to journalists via the Mayo Clinic News Network. Media professionals interested in watching the conference webcast must go to the News Network web site to sign up and set a username and password; registration is free.

Individualizing Medicine 2012 covers five key themes on use of genomics in patient care. Each theme consists of three presentations, followed by a panel discussion. Schedule highlights include:

• Individualizing Medicine Today — A Primer on Individualized Medicine. What is individualized medicine? Where does the field stand today? The conference begins by answering these questions and providing an overview of emerging technologies, like next-generation sequencing, the microbiome, pharmacogenomics, epigenomics, informatics and more.
• Individualizing Clinical Care. As new discoveries make their way into the clinic, they bring a new set of challenges. Speakers will address clinical issues, such as whole-genome interpretation, its use in prognosis and diagnosis, and how to share this information with patients.
• Individualizing Laboratory Medicine. Individualized care begins in the lab, with the sequencing and interpretation of a patient's As, Gs, Ts and Cs. Topics in this theme focus on laboratory practice, including data processing, knowledge integration, validation and reporting rules.
• Ethical and Regulatory Implications of Individualizing Medicine. The use of genomic data in clinical practice has triggered an array of ethical, legal, social and regulatory considerations. Speakers and discussions will delve into these evolving issues.
• Decision-Support Infrastructure for Individualizing Medicine. To practice individualized medicine, clinicians must have access to the right information in the right place at the right time. From biomedical informatics to information technology, this theme will cover the technical needs necessary to navigate the oceans of data generated during genome sequencing and unlock the true potential of individualized medicine.

Other conference highlights include the media panel titled "Great Expectations: Making Informed Decisions in Individualized Medicine." Ira Flatow, host of NPR's "Science Friday," will moderate the discussion, which focuses on the perceptions and realities of genomics in patient care. The panel is scheduled from 7-8 p.m., Oct. 2 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. The panel will be webcast live on Mayo Clinic's Advancing the Science blog. Viewers may submit questions during the event to imconference@mayo.edu.

Panelists scheduled to appear include:

• Ron Winslow, Deputy Medical Editor, The Wall Street Journal
• Erika Check Hayden, senior reporter, Nature
• Susan Wolf, J.D., McKnight Presidential Professor of Law, Medicine and Public Policy, and the Faegre Baker Daniels Professor of Law, University of Minnesota
• Gianrico Farrugia, M.D.,director, Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic
• Gail Onderak, co-chair, Community Advisory Board, Mayo Clinic Biobank

About the Center for Individualized Medicine

The Center for Individualized Medicine discovers and integrates the latest in genomic, molecular and clinical sciences into personalized care for each Mayo Clinic patient.

About the Individualizing Medicine Conference

Individualizing Medicine 2012 is presented by Mayo Clinic, in partnership with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State University, University of Minnesota and Karolinska Institutet. This conference is supported by the Marriott Family Program in Individualized Medicine. For more information, visit Individualizing Medicine 2012.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit MayoClinic.com or MayoClinic.org/news.

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